The following is what Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar had to say:

The tendering process was done “according to due process, above board” and had complied with the required regulations.

“All the companies and their personnel involved were vetted by the police and there were no Israelis involved”

Then we have Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan saying:

The police were aware of the involvement of the Israelis in their communications systems upgrading project

“We informed the Home Ministry as soon as we learnt about it.”

By now you would probably be wondering who is right and who is wrong.
One might also wonder if this is a classic case of dumb and dumber?

Then again with our Malaysian government this is hardly surprising, no!

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The MB of Terengganu – in a knee-jerk attempt to explain the decision – has indirectly stated the reasons for the switch being that there are various issues that have plagued Proton cars especially in the area of the maintenance costs.

He also has the nerve to cite better resale value for the Mercedes as a plus point for the Mercedes purchase. This of course is pretty much bullshit as we Malaysian all know that the state official cars are mostly sold off for peanuts to these politicians who basically end up taking us all for the ride!

Now I am not even going to ask the question why would the exco’s of Terengganu require such expensive cars the likes of Mercedes when in reality the current standing of the state of Terrengganu is as the 2nd poorest state in the country.

Instead I would like to pose this scenario to the people of Terengganu:
Imagine being a low income citizen struggling to survive in these harsh times, who has the misfortune to see their duly appointed politician making their rounds among the citizens in their luxury Mercedes!
Turun Ke Padang has never been so stylish as it will be in Terrengganu.

Furthermore this issues has highligted another glaring sign of the lack of power of our current PM and his DPM holds. Instead of directly telling off their subbordinates in Terrengganu to stick to Proton as would have been the case previously, Najib has instead announced that the ‘cabinet’ will meet and discuss the issue. I mean with things like an ailing economy of their books one would think that the cabinet has better matters to talk about.

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Rais: Proposal meant for those under 21

“There’s some misunderstanding. I was referring to boys and girls who travel on their own, especially those below 21 and who are still subject to the supervision of their parents. Women above 21 years old are adult enough.

“But for those below 21, it’s only fair that parental guidance be given,” he told reporters at a press conference here at the end of his working visit to Indonesia yesterday.

Then he also goes on to say…

Rais said the consent need not necessarily be in the form of papers or letters of declaration, as that would be a big hindrance.

“What I meant was those below 21 should be guided; parents should ask why they want to go to Venezuela or Spain.

And to top it all off he retorted with….

“But if this is regarded by human rightists to be against human rights, wait until their own children get into trouble,” he said.

I don’t think must can be said for Rais and his statements above. But if anythins should be said then ‘A total blunder‘ is the first words that leap to mind.

Here we have the Foreign Minister making half-past-six like ‘blanket‘ statements with little though of the possible outcome or public outcry in regards to what can only be termed as a draconian law to be imposed on women.

But wait as the furore rises Rais then comes out saying same something very much along the line of “… Right, I meant to say that only for those below 21 years of age….”!

DUH!!!

To all Ministers and MP’s – please don’t send the perception out to the world that some of our ministers and MPs are not all that bright and don’t put much thought before making their statements. And please, please don’t insult our intelligence by blaming your blunder on the standard byline of ‘misunderstanding‘ or ‘misquoting‘!

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When new Tourism Minister Azlina last week announced that the tourism MoU’s signed with the 4 new Pakatan Rakyat (PR) states are to be terminated there was an avalanche of criticism from all quarters. Loudest on the matter was of course the PR led state governments’ leaders and no shortage of public opinion was drummed up in the days following the announcement.

Yesterday Azalina "cleared the air" on the issue and stated that the cancellation of the MoU’s would not discriminate against any state, tourism organisation and also the rakyat themselves. When I said she "cleared the air" what I specific meant is that reading between the lines of her statement we are presented with a few viewpoints on how things should work in Azalina’s book.

* * * N O T E * * *
From this point forward are all conjecture(s) on the writers part and cannot be claimed to be fact in absence of cold hard proof!

Retention of tourism funds and its various money flows in the hands of BN.

Reason numero uno behind Azalina’s decision in my opinion is that the tourism allocation and funds that are normally granted to the Tourism Action Councils (TAC) – nominally lead by the state exco members – must remain in the hands of BN . Basically now that PR has come into power in the 4 new states, BN members will no more be able to sit on the TAC councils. Hence if things were to remain as they were then the PR state exco’s would have had access to the monies and thus have the capability to carry out tourism activities or events on their own. This of course is a big no no and the result is her decision to cancel the MoU’s with the states. Nowhere more clear is the point made than by her own self:

On whether the Pakatan state governments will have access to the funds, Azalina said: "The difference is who signs the cheque – they sign the cheques or we sign the cheques?
"This is the federal government, so we sign the cheques. What’s the big deal?”

Continuation of the infamous "Satu Lagi Project Kerajaan BN" propaganda in terms of the tourism activities.

Tied hand in hand with the first reason above is the mentality of continuing the not so subtle propaganda of the "Satu Lagi Project Kerajaan BN" . If the Tourism Ministry can control and direct the TAC in the PR held states then they can conduct all the tourism activities and events under the all encompassing umbrella of brand BN . This can later on be used as political mileage come the next general elections. Just recall the various highlights that tourism events in Kelantan were given in the local MSM – ultimately affording BN all the kudos. My point is somewhat justified in lieu of the following statement:

Tourism Ministry secretary-general Dr Victor Wee explained that there were two issues in the matter.
Firstly, TACs in the opposition states will no longer be headed by the state excos for tourism and will instead be led by him or a person appointed by the minister, he said.
"And second, is the way the funds will be channeled. The funds will no longer go through the states but through a federal mechanism. Because of the nature of the new political scenario, the MOUs with the states will be cancelled.

Staying true to her "Politics is a marriage of convenience" agenda.

Just last week Azalina was quoted to have said that politics is a marriage of convenience . Her point is well justified by her own actions with her high handedness of cancelling the tourism MoU’s in the Pakatan held states. The priorities in her opinion is most definitely not for the betterment of the tourism industry, the economy and that of the rakyat directly affected. Rather most likely first and foremost priority is BN itself and ensuring that it’s powerbase is protected . Again the line of thought here is that as long as BN can dole out the proverbial crumbs , matters will have to go through them for their approval and blessing.

On the way the funds are channeled – instead of money going to the Pakatan state governments and it will now go to ministry-controlled committees – the minister said that it was the federal government’s perogative.
"It applies to all the states which is being led by opposition government. This has happened for the past few years with Kelantan and we’ve never discriminated as far as tourism projects are concerned. We’ve been very fair.”

Thus the actions of Azalina in her capacity as the new Tourism Minister can be viewed either way. Justifying her point of view is her statement that tourism activities and events will continue to go on in the Pakatan governed states – only it’ll be under the purview of the federal government. But anyone who can connect the dots will see the decision for what it truly is – a desperate attempt at grasping for the reins of power to be held as firmly as possible in the hands of BN, with any means necessary.

Reference:

1. Malaysiakini – BN doesn’t discriminate, Azalina tells MBs
2. The Star – Azalina: Tourism MoUs with Opposition-ruled states to be terminated

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It would seem that expecting the party leader to shoulder the leadership responsibilities – both the good and the bad – are a concept foreign in UMNO. Then again nobody would actually expect Muhd Taib to brazenly come out against his own boss more so since the new lease of life in politics that he has been recently granted.

This is in reference to the following report published on Malaysiakini, Muhammad Muhd Taib

Mat Taib jabs Dr M, defends Pak Lah

Defending his party president during a press conference at his Rural And Regional Development Ministry in Putrajaya, Muhammad said people should stop pointing fingers at Abdullah.

“What Mahathir and people are doing now is very, very wrong. It is not fair to point fingers at one person when everybody knows there were many contributing factors.

“It is very unfair to dump the blame on the PM. This is unfair and done in bad faith,” he said.

Muhammad was referring to “unfair” comments from Mahathir made at a forum yesterday on how Abdullah was shameless in refusing to resign for Barisan Nasional’s biggest election setback last month.

‘Not a level playing field’

He pointed out that there were also other contributing factors to BN’s performance including the role played by bloggers, news portals and short messaging service (SMS).

“It wasn’t a level-playing field (between the BN and opposition). BN did not use the portals, SMS and ICT (information and communications technology) to the fullest,” he said.

Muhammad noted that the BN lost in the “virtual elections” while opposition had cashed in on using video CDs showing temple demolitions which caused the swing of Indian voters.

And Muhd Taib doesn’t stop there. He even has the audacity to say that there wasn’t a level playing field between BN and PR – citing the oppositions’ use of blogs, news portals and SMS to spread their stand. Apparently a ‘level playing field’ in the dictionary of UMNO is the situation where the following hold true:

1. UMNO hold all the card

2. UMNO deals out all the ‘party favour’ exclusively

3. BN shackles the MSM into a blatantly pro-establishment propaganda machinery

I say good job to the opposition for utilizing new media to spread the truth. I say damn great job for spreading the information of the temple demolitions that were virtually blacked out on the MSM’s. I say thank god we don’t live in the totally unrealistic world of Muhd Taib’s delusions anymore.

He can shift the blame to bloggers, news portals and SMS as much as he want to but we Malaysian have long known the truth behind UMNO’s lies and propaganda. All he has managed to do is to show us that he is talking without thinking things through.

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When Lim Kit Siang (DAP) issued a call to boycott Perak’s swearing in of the state exco the was a complete furore from the main stream media (MSM) with articles insinuating and all out declaring that LKS & the DAP CEC had shown disrespect against the Regent of Perak Raja Nazrin. This was then followed by calls for a variety of NGO’s for LKS & DAP to apologise.

The articles from the MSM can be seen to be purely one sided as they usually are in lieu of the recent debacle that UMNO is perpetuating in Terengganu. It took barely a day since LKS made his blog post on DAP decision to boycott the swearing in ceremony before the claws were out and the nasty side of the MSM were reared! (LKS had later on issued an apology to the Perak Regent)

Yet it’s now been 3 whole days since the crisis in Terengganu has occurred. Moreover the decision of UMNO’s 22 state assemblymen to boycott the swearing in of fellow(former!) UMNO assemblyman Ahmad Said in a show of protest against his nomination by DYMM Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin to the post of Menteri Besar, flies in the face of the monarchy and can and should be considered as a serious act of disrespect against the Sultan whose currently the ruling Agong of Malaysia.

Did the MSM highlight this equally as they did against LKS during the Perak nomination?

The answer is NO!

Are the MSM calling for UMNO and the 22 assemblypersons to apologise to the Sultan for their disrespect?

Once again the answer is NO!

That’s the so called free press for you. In this country free press actually means biased and pro-government only. This blogger feels time and again justified that he’s participating in the call to boycott the MSM for this whole week! Serves them right.

As for those NGO’s that made all sort of calls last week my question to you all are:
Where are your voices now?
Have each and everyone of you gone mute?

Why are you not coming out and proclaiming the same statements that you so easily made against DAP just days ago? Just because it’s UMNO whose at fault now you’ve conveniently kept quit on the issue. In my opinion you attitude smacks of bigotry!

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Go ahead and watch it and prepare to laugh out loud… I sure did!

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With the news of the announcement that the Selangor MCA division’s decision to resign from all state level positions, MCA’s strategy as the opposition in the state government clearly comes down to basically sitting back and letting things deteriorate.

As seen time and again the BN’s component parties have always required their members to tow the party line – full stop! In the current view of being the opposition this time around in Selangor, MCA has clearly forgotten that win or lose they are still the representatives of the people and communities they were elected to represent.

Isn’t there some way that these MCA councilors might possibly be able to work hand in hand with the new state government for the betterment of the people?

Unfortunately it would seem that line of thought is taboo and the answer is no dice!

In my opinion MCA’s move to resign from all their various post in the state government machineries can be summarised as their political strategy in making the next 5 years of the new Selangor state government an uphill battle. Basically their attitude smacks of washing their hand clean of responsibility to the people in lieu of their recent losses!

This makes one wonder if serving the people was ever the foremost in MCA’s mandate. However as a consolation, in the game of politics things are never that easy nor clear cut to begin with.

Personally, my thoughts are that MCA should seriously wake up from their outdated practices and look into revamping their political line of thought into one that’s a more Bipartisanship.

Show they people that you can still serve them in any capacity – be it as state leaders or even as opposition leaders!

(Pics courtesy of fisserman)

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He hyped on it during the 2004 elections.

His image was built on being against it!

He promised to bring an end to it.

And the people practically handed the mandate to him back in 2004 with the hopes that he would solve the it problem!

It is non other than Corruption!

4 years on it’s become apparent to most Malaysian’s that PM Badawi’s talk of fighting corruption was exactly that – all talk and no action. Oh sure there were some arrest and court cases once in a while, but no credible nor tangible action to bring down the major players of the corruption disease festering in this country today was ever made.

Even worse are the cases of the State Assemblymen who circumvent the rule of law as if immune to it when building his ‘palace’ and also that of an MP’s literarily asking the authorities to “Close One Eye” – all added up to an even more desponding outlook for the battle against corruption.

Thus this time around the people have spoken. Among the many grouses of the people, corruption was indeed a key issue. A clear message has been sent to the people in power, especially PM Badawi, that more action is needed.

So this time around PM Badawi’s same old ‘new’ line is once more – Fight Against Corruption.This time though the thoughts on many peoples mind is whether or not he seriously make the effort or not this time?

For now he has made some small steps in the long road to bringing a credible fight to corruption by stating that all cabinet ministers and deputies will have to publicly declare their assets. While this is a good first step, still it’s definitely not enough in my opinion.

I say if the rot extends to the state exco’s and local councilmen, then PM Badawi must also extend the same requirement to all such personage under the BN umbrella.

(Pics courtesy of Catch the dream)

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Then he did an abrupt U-Turn and instead voice his support for Badawi. Then word on the street was that Mukhriz was intimidated by pro-Badawi UMNO supporters converging on the site of his press conference – supporters sent by the ’son in-law’ none the less.

Now it’s apparently ‘go time‘ once more for Mukhriz, but instead of a formal press conference he’s going the time and tested way of the pen is mightier than the sword i.e. an an official letter to Badawi requesting his resignation.

Below is the 2 pages of the above said letter. Make your own conclusion.

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